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Friday, May 4, 2018

Leading . . .

(from A Higher Loyalty; Truth, Lies, and Leadership by James Comey)
". . . And then there was a man named Harry Howell. . . During my junior and senior years of high school, I worked for Harry at a large grocery store near Allendale. I didn't make much money stocking shelves, retrieving carts, and working the ash register, maybe four dollars an hour but I loved my job. That was in large part due to the kind of leader he was. . . Somehow he created an environment that was both demanding and incredibly fun. He suppressed a smile at our silliness- just letting the corner of his mouth turn up slightly so we could see his amusement- and told us bluntly when our work wasn't good enough. We loved him. But we also feared him, in a healthy way. Because he made us feel important, because he so obviously cared about what he was doing and about us, we desperately wanted to please him. . ."